{"id":659,"date":"2012-01-27T15:15:44","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T15:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/libraryarchives\/?p=659"},"modified":"2019-11-22T13:48:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T13:48:46","slug":"the-rollins-bugler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/2012\/01\/27\/the-rollins-bugler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rollins Bugler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bugler, pictured in the 1937<\/em> Tomokan yearbook<\/em><\/p>\n

In April 1953, The Sandspur<\/em> reported \u201ca minor revolution\u201d on campus:\u00a0 the era of the campus bugler had ended.\u00a0 He had been replaced by chimes, a gift of the graduating class of 1952.<\/p>\n

Though we know when this tradition ended, its origins are unclear. \u00a0In the College\u2019s early years, the bell in the tower of Knowles Hall marked various activities throughout the day (from a 7:00 wake-up call to \u201clights out\u201d at 11:00).\u00a0 After the building burned down in 1909, Prof. Thomas Baker reported that the bell was \u201cgreatly missed upon the campus and in all the region about the college, for it called pupils to recitations, to meals, to study, to recreation\u2014indeed, it was a signal-call to almost everything of importance that occurred upon the campus\u201d (Florida Times-Union<\/em>, Dec. 23, 1909).<\/p>\n

The date at which the bugle succeeded the tower bell is unknown.\u00a0 The earliest mention of the bugler found to date comes from the November 20, 1915, edition of The Sandspur<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 There an article reported that the bugle would awaken students at 7:30 on Thanksgiving Day \u201c(Item, one extra hour of sleep; this is where our thanksgiving commences.)”<\/p>\n

Over the years, various students were employed as campus bugler.\u00a0 As such, they were often the target of pranks played by their classmates.\u00a0 In 1928, The Sandspur<\/em> asked, \u201cWho took the bugle?\u201d after it disappeared one afternoon.\u00a0 After three days, \u201cthe Dean found it impossible to endure more. He called four outstanding men from this college called Rollins in to talk to him.\u201d\u00a0 After an ultimatum to return the bugle or buy a new one, \u201cfour stalwart fellows climbed up the chimney in Chase Hall\u201d to retrieve it (The Sandspur,<\/em> 4\/27\/1928).\u00a0 In 1949, The Sandspur<\/em> asked,\u201dWho stole Stanley Rudd\u2019s bugle and twisted it until it was dead?\u201d (2\/3\/1949).\u00a0 And bugler Paul Grannan often had to hear comments such as, “Hold it for a minute wouldja?” from students who were running late (The Sandspur<\/em>, 12\/7\/1945).<\/p>\n

Sometimes the bugler made national news.\u00a0 When freshman Presley Wetherell filled in during the illness of the regular bugler, he became the subject of an Associated Press article, \u201cRollins Bugler Tacks on Tunes.\u201d\u00a0 The story noted that Wetherell added an extra flourish to his \u201cfourteen daily calls, usually tacking on a finale, reaching anything from \u2018Loch Lomond\u2019 to \u2018Minnie the Moocher\u2019\u201d (The New York Times<\/em>, 1\/27\/1939). \u00a0In the 1940s, a Saturday Evening Post<\/em> article about Rollins described “one of the more arresting academic oddities on exhibition.\u00a0 There is, for example, a young man with a horn who operates approximately a hundred yards from Dr. Holt’s office.\u00a0 As a hot trumpet player, his function is to convene and dismiss classes with a few melodious blasts at the appointed hours.\u00a0It is something of a jolt to see young people scurrying for the classrooms while this fellow stands under a central palm tree, spurring them on with a chorus of \u2018Sweet Lorraine\u2019” (The Saturday Evening<\/em> Post<\/em>, 2\/23\/1946).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “Pres Relieves Felder,” from the 1939 <\/em>Tomokan yearbook<\/em><\/p>\n

But a few years later, a Sandspur<\/em> editorial, \u201cSick Ears Seek Peace\u201d (1\/17\/1952), called for the bugle to be replaced by a more modern system.\u00a0 About a month later, the senior class voted to replace the bugler with chimes, as a gift to their alma mater.\u00a0 And the last bugle call was given by Dan Matthews \u201955 the following spring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Dan Matthews plays the final bugle call at Rollins<\/em><\/p>\n

Mary Seymour \u201980 provides a coda to this story:\u00a0 \u201cIronically, Matthews\u2019 future wife, Deener Vigeant\u201952, was partially responsible for the demise of his job. The class of 1952\u2014her class\u2014donated the money for the new loudspeaker system. Matthews, recently retired rector of Trinity Church in New York City, still teases his wife about unseating him as resident Rollins bugler.\u201d<\/p>\n

~ by D. Moore, Archival Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bugler, pictured in the 1937 Tomokan yearbook In April 1953, The Sandspur reported \u201ca minor revolution\u201d on campus:\u00a0 the era of the campus bugler had ended.\u00a0 He had been replaced by chimes, a gift of the graduating class of 1952. Though we know when this tradition ended, its origins are unclear. \u00a0In the College\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":375628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,36,37,47,66,71,186,210,251,268,281,314,326],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bell","tag-bugle","tag-bugler","tag-chimes","tag-daniel-matthews","tag-deener-matthews","tag-knowles-hall","tag-mary-seymour","tag-paul-grannan","tag-presley-wetherell","tag-prof-thomas-r-baker","tag-stanley-rudd","tag-thanksgiving","wpcat-1-id"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376126,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/376126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/libraryarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}